Transforming agriculture in the Midwest: Reflections on five years of impact
In the last five years, the Midwest Row Crop Collaborative (MRCC) advanced regenerative agriculture across the Midwestern United States—one of the most vital agricultural regions in the world—with investment support from HSBC Bank USA (HSBC). The region is responsible for nearly 90% of U.S. corn and 80% of U.S. soybean production with over 127 million acres of farmland. However, intensive agricultural practices have led to significant environmental challenges, including soil degradation, nutrient runoff, declining water quality, and greenhouse gas emissions.
We are celebrating five years of progress—not just in numbers, but in real-world impact for farmers, landscapes, and supply chains. This partnership provided MRCC the unique opportunity to pilot our theory of change in real-world settings, working with trusted partners across four key geographies.
At the core of MRCC’s work is a systems-change approach: incubating and testing solutions to remove barriers to regenerative practice adoption while sharing learnings that can catalyze broader transformation across the food and agriculture system. Our theory of change includes five pathways:
- Conservation Finance and Incentives
- De-risking Practice Adoption
- Agriculture Network Engagement
- Creating Demand for Sustainable Commodities
- Consumer Engagement
The HSBC-supported work enabled us to test the first three pathways through localized implementation across Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan. Each of the three projects led by Practical Farmers of Iowa, Precision Conservation Management, and The Nature Conservancy served as a distinct case study of what it takes to turn systems change theory into impact on the ground.
Local approaches, Scalable impact
Practical Farmers of Iowa – Small Grains, Large Gains
The Small Grains, Large Gains program in Blair, Nebraska, and Eddyville, Iowa, implemented by Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI), focused on integrating small grains and legume cover crops into the traditional corn and soybean rotations that dominate the landscape. PFI’s approach is rooted in historical context: Midwest agriculture was once diversified with small grains, alfalfa, and livestock contributing to a more holistic system.
Today, farmers recognize the ecological and agronomic benefits of returning to more diverse rotations but face persistent barriers, including lack of market demand and operational complexity.
PFI staff addressed these barriers by pairing cost-share opportunities with technical assistance and peer learning. Farmers who participated in the program added small grains and cover crops to their systems. These practices aim to reduce the need for commercial fertilizers, enhance soil health, and improve water quality by breaking up pest cycles and spreading labor throughout the season.
Key takeaway: Farmers trust other farmers. PFI’s peer-mentorship model helped break down adoption barriers, proving that farmer-led engagement is one of the most effective ways to drive practice change.
Precision Conservation Management – Data-driven Decision Making
The Precision Conservation Management (PCM) program in Paris, Illinois, managed by the Illinois Corn Growers Association, is a farmer-designed service program targeting the widespread adoption of conservation practices to enhance sustainability and profitability on American farms.
PCM staff worked with farmers in a Cargill supply shed to evaluate the financial and environmental impacts of regenerative practices, mainly cover crop adoption. Through an online farmer portal and one-on-one technical assistance, PCM offered detailed analytics on farm economics and environmental outcomes to inform management decisions and lead to measurable improvements in water quality and farm profitability.
This approach tested the theory that providing transparent, farmer-facing data on both cost and benefit would increase conservation practice adoption. PCM’s team demonstrated how insights about return on investment helps farmers make informed decisions while giving downstream supply chain actors access to data that supports sustainability commitments.
Key takeaway: Farmers need clear financial data on conservation return on investment. PCM’s Farmer Portal helped bridge the gap, showing producers how practices such as cover crops and conservation tillage can improve profitability.
The Nature Conservancy – Supporting U.S. Farmers
In Illinois and Michigan, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), in partnership with Kellanova and their suppliers, piloted two different pay-for-performance models for consumer package goods corporations and merchandizers as an incentive for sustainable wheat production. Grain merchandizer Star of the West Milling Company operated an internal program in Michigan to provide premiums to farmers based on sustainability performance measures. In Illinois, farmers utilized Saving Tomorrow’s Agriculture Resources (STAR) to self-assess conservation practices and receive premiums accordingly. STAR is a simple, practice-based evaluation tool that farmers can use, field by field, to understand the soil and water quality impacts of their management practices, which provides a roadmap for improvement.
Key takeaway: Market-driven incentives, such as nature-based bonuses and per-acre conservation payments, helped drive farmer participation, proving that aligning sustainability with profitability is critical for scaling regenerative agriculture.
Systems change: One region at a time
While each of the projects operated independently, they collectively created real-world proof of MRCC’s systems change pathways. Each project tested new financial and incentive mechanisms, demonstrated practical ways to reduce farmer risk, and worked through trusted advisor networks to support practice adoption.
This multi-year partnership not only created outcomes on the ground—it generated critical insight into what works, what doesn’t, and what requires more exploration. Importantly, the diversity of approaches allowed us to understand which solutions may be universally replicable and which need to be tailored to fit local cultural and agronomic contexts.
In Part 2 of this blog series, we’ll take a closer look at the cross-cutting lessons that emerged from these projects. Sign up for the Environmental Initiative newsletter and follow along on LinkedIn so you don’t miss the next installation in our three-part series.